[Eenypup]

The fact is... They're just dogs. The reason I think they often aren't perfect for first time owners if that many people don't acknowledge or want to deal with propensity for dog aggression and prey drive. Because they're large terriers, many can't live safely with other dogs or small animals. They can range from completely dog friendly to totally dog aggressive, just like any other type of dog. They just happen to be more likely to err toward dog intolerance and aggression than others. They are not more likely than any other dog to be human aggressive. Sure, you could have temperament issues with any shelter mutt due to poor genetics. But I wouldn't be more worried about a BYB bully breed over a BYB of any other similarly sized dog or larger.

 

[Eenypup]

I completely agree that so many people who own bully breeds ("pit bulls" or whatever they want to call their dog) shouldn't. A lot of them are owned by older bleeding heart rescue people who won't admit their dog has strong prey drive and may not be perfect with other dogs. They end up bringing their adult pits to dog parks and are SHOCKED when they don't do well in large groups of strange dogs! Of course the people who use them for status symbols or to look cool and/or scary are just as bad and are completely ill-equipped to own any dog, let alone a strong terrier. Believe me, when my dog sees a squirrel she is NOT messing around - she's strong!

 

[Eenypup]

I shudder to think what would have happened if the dog had been irritated by any of the couple of dozen children or their parents who were in that playground area. I seriously doubt the owner could have controlled that dog even if he had wanted to bother to do so.

Just because bullies are often dog aggressive to some extent - that dog is not any more likely than another mutt or dog of a background you don't know to start attacking humans. I mean sure, an untrained large dog with an irresponsible owner is a nuisance at best and a danger at worst, but I hope you didn't shudder because of the dog being a "mastiff/bully" of some kind. Although perhaps the sheer size was intimidating if the dog was mastiff-like.

 

[Eenypup]

Although to redact my previous statement a bit... yeah I'd be more leery of a guardian breed like a mastiff than a smaller, non-guardian breed dog. But I don't see how that's related to "pit bulls" at all. Why do all scary looking short haired dogs get lumped into one category? I fail to see the similarity between a 100+ lb guardian breed and my 50 lb bully mutt.

The only dog I've ever been truly afraid of was a Briard. A clueless family I used to babysit for owned this huge fluffy dog, and my first night of babysitting he cornered me in a room while holding their baby and gave me a warning bite (snap? I don't know, he made light contact) to the arm. I made them crate for a while after, and never trusted him. He never became friendly towards me. But he gets dragged around the city without a blink of anyone's eyes because he's not reminiscent of a "pit bull" or some other "scary" dog breed.

 

[Eenypup]

I think the more clueless one at that point was you, not the dog nor the owners. Look up the breed, it was merely doing what is was bred for. And that is guard. The baby was its to protect and you, a stranger, were manhandling it. Because if the Briard was really going after you, it'd have gone after you.


As for why do all the scary dogs get lumped into pit bull the reason - human scum that shouldn't own a fruit fly.

You want to know what I mean google the cow that let loose two pits on a guy walking to church in the Bronx. Woman has no control over the mutts and then has the nerve to lie - because I doubt she's telling the truth, her 2 + 2 just doesn't make 4 - by saying that she and the man "exchanged words" so it was alright for her to just "drop the leashes" [she admits, she just dropped the leashes]. That's just one example of the reason why people are afraid.

And yeah mastiff type pit bulls ARE becoming a problem of have you Eenypup not being reading up on the breed. There's XL pits, XXL pits. Some of them are nothing but fat bully dogs and about as really threatening to a human as a three legged cat... but some kennels do breed correct LARGE pitbulls.

And that's the problem if you didn't know ... people breeding big pits on the street to be tougher.

You really think I am unaware that Briards are guardian breeds and he was protecting the baby? It was not me who was clueless - the parents told me he would 1000% fine with me handling the baby and not to worry even though he was unfriendly with me from the start. I expressed concern because he did not appreciate me entering his home, and they swore up and down he was the friendliest mushball in the world. I mean yes I was stupid to believe them and not think his breed traits would prevail, but I sure as heck would still categorize the owners as "clueless" and not me. When I explained the situation and asked that they crate the dog because he didn't like me holding the baby, they thought I was crazy to not think their dog was the biggest sweetheart in the world. He was guarding the baby and they wouldn't believe it. That's not my fault.

And there's no such thing as a "big pit". So that's where you're wrong, not me. An XXXL American Bully is NOT the same thing as a 45 lb ABPT, nor are those mastiff-sized dogs under that category either. I read up plenty on APBTs although I don't own one, but clearly you do not.

And I still fail to see how a mastiff mutt of 100+ lb is similar at all to a 50 lb bully mutt. So that point stands as to how these conversations are linked at all.

 

[Eenypup]

It's related to pit bulls because a poster upthread mentioned that he/she knew of people who were attempting to breed super-sized pitbulls much larger than the standard pitbull. My comment was that I thought I'd seen something that would fall into that category, though I have no idea if the dog I saw was a purposeful cross or just an accidental one. He was enormous, however, and I've been around standard-sized mastiffs, so I suspect something of that size was in the mix there, though the shape of the head was more bully breed than mastiff.

That's just the point - this is another discussion entirely. "Fact or fiction... giant BYB mastiff mixes". It's just not the same thing as what this thread is supposedly about. It makes no sense that the wrongdoings of owners of vastly different types of dogs all get lumped in the same category. There are stupid mastiff mutt owners, stupid bully mutt owners, etc, but at that point we're just talking about generic irresponsible breeding and ownership.